'The Battle of Five Armies' also sounds a lot more exciting so the film will probably attract more people making more at the box office. Possibly one of PJ's motives?

I personally don't agree with all the comments about him trying to make loads of money by splitting it in three; I think his motives on most things to do with the film are for the best and I like the new title. I just can't wait 'til the actual battle!

Death of Smaug, Fall of the Necromancer... Also the battle is nothing. Characters and emotional growth are what make great stories. It is the new relationships that spawn from this war, it is Thorin recognizing Bilbo for his true greatness of moral character, it is much more than just a battle.

This title is much like this entire trilogy. Thrown together on the fly with no direction, Way too many things have been changed late in the game. Instead of filming things to fit an idea, PJ is changing his mind, adding things and forcing them in and having no idea and no concept anymore.

I would hate to be a contract merchandizer for this, even GW must be hating PJ by now.Lets see, here is Azog, no wait now that is Yazneg and this is azog, ok no that is now Bolg, and here is Azog, oh and now there are three films. Oh wiat Bolg is no longer in the trilogy, ok now here is film two and we have bolg in there again, oh and he is completely different yet almost the same as the bolg we previously nixed. Ok and we decided to nix all the GT story out so the scribe will not be seen again. And we reshot Lake town scenes 6 times now so even we don't know what is going to happen in Lake town. Azog is going to lead a fight against the elves, oh wait, no we decided to send out best character back to the side lines and put this stupid looking Bolg in place. Oh and now that everyone has sent final drafts to the publishers to have production started on posters and books, well we decided to change the title so you can shovel all that money in the trash too....If I was GW, I would be ready to get out of this contract and never make another hobbit model again. Hard to say as a fan, but this is being produced in the worst way ever.

According to legend, PJ's participation is heavily bound by contractual manage AND there are now more people controlling things. So we are seeing the result of resentful filmmaking by committee, only now with poo jokes.

Me, I am hanging around for some nice music and maybe new Rivendell models.

I'll look for them for you. It was on a thread on RPG.net, people discussing some of the odder elements of the Hobbit films. The gist seems to be that WB wouldn't release LOTR royalties unless the Hobbit got itself directed.

On the other hand, the LOTR films were up to their ears in weirdo Hollywood accounting and weird Hollywood legaity, with a lot of stakeholders not getting paid because the biggest films on earth for a few years running didn't make any profits. It's quite easy to loose track of which lawsuit and which contractual oddness came up this time. (The estate, Enterprises, the Weinsteins and a number of other groups have all sued WB over owed royalties or rights)

So, whenever I find more details, I'll plonk them here.

Edit: though the key point is not the (speculative) idea of the mindset of the makers making the film, but rather the undeniable reality of movie-making-by committee. Each time you see a logo up the front end of a film, you're seeing basically a management commitee which controls funding, supervises your script, edits your script, demands reshoots, oversees screentime, plot focus and more. The more logos, the more bodies involved, the more committees. The more money a film costs to make, the more you need to spread the risk, and you do that by doing co-productions with other studios, other production houses and other financial entities. That the Hobbit has such a number of such entities is pretty obvious. New Line is part of (merged junior partner) of WB, which is co-producing with MGM, which is a bit of a swirl of various partnerships and Jackson's Wingnut films. Now shovel in a bunch of global distribution houses (distributors take your money and often make production decisions) and the result is...odd. I suspect the core production team are highly familiar with the jar of paracetamol.